Infinite Stratos Story(no official title yet)
by Marukomu
Summary: To any fans of the series, this will take place at the end of the first season and follow a different timeline than the second season as well as incorporate some elements from the actual novel.
1. Prolouge

**Prologue**

The scene opens up on one of the beaches of Japan not far from Orimura's house. As Ichika looks out to the ocean he sees the sun begin to rise up over the horizon and thinks back to the incident that happened not more than a couple months ago. "*sigh* Has it really been two months?" Ichika thinks back to that fateful day as he stares off into the sky. The day a unmanned IS unit went rouge over the Pacifc ocean.

The academy did its best to track down the rouge unit and have it terminated. However the confidentiality of the incident only held for so long. Merely a couple days after the confirmed destruction of the target video footage was released onto the internet from a ship that witnessed one of the skirmishes involving the Silvario Gospel. It wasn't long until the world discovered that the United States was responsible for the IS unit that went on a westward rampage and soon other nations began to grow ever more suspicious of whether or not they could to trust the integrity of each other. However, unknown to the rest of the world Ichika held a secret. A secret that continues to rip at his concious.

What the IS academy failed to inform its students before they sent them into battle is that the Silvario Gospel wasn't actually unmanned. As it turned out the United States had been experimenting on its IS pilots with beta technology. A new program that completely integrated the pilot's subconcious into the machine. The effects massively improved their combat results, however they would all but lose their humanity. It was as if the pilots themselves became machines. No signs of pain, joy, regret, fear and no means of verbal communication. They had to completely rely on a cerebral communication network.

When Ichika delt the finishing blow he didn't realise it at first, it wasn't till Houki pointed it out that he even understood the consequences of his action. "*sigh* We finally did it". Ichika releases his Yukihira and wipes the sweat from his forehead after piercing through the armor of the Silvario Gospel. As he begins to calm down Houki flies down towards him and then gently lands at his side. "Ichika, are you alright?" Houki asks him with a look or cornern. "Yeah, I'm fine". Relieved by his respose Houki began to smile however she, immediately began to worry when she looked at his chest. "I...Ichika you're bleeding!" Ichika follows Houki's gaze to his chest and spots the blood. He then runs his and over his chest and reassures himself that he isn't injured. "This isn't my blood." He immediatley looks over the rest of his body to look for any other wounds and it's then that he finally noticed.

Behind him layed the Silvario Gospel and he finally realised. The IS wasn't unmanned, the IS has a pilot. A pilot who know laid at the ground dead with a hole through her chest where Ichika's Yukihira Nigata pierced through her. He had just claimed someone's life. He stared in shock at what he had done. He then fell to his knees and collapsed. Houki turned back to look at the others who have yet to notice, she then picks Ichika up and carries him over to where they are floating congradulating each other over a successful mission. As she approaches Cecilia noticed Ichika unconsious in Houki's arms.

"I...Ichika!" Cecilia suddenly yells in panic, this causes the other girls to turn their heads and they rush over towards Houki. Charlotte was the first to speak when reached the two of them. "What happened, is he okay?" "Yeah...he merely passed out from over exerting himself during the mission." The girls inadvertantley accept Houki's story and bein to feel at ease. Laura then suggests that they return and report the results of the mission to Orimura-sensei. As they fly back towards the hotel Houki looks back at the island where the Silvario Gospel lies knowing that she and Ichika would forever bear this dreadfull secret.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

Once the students returned from their trip to the beach things seemed to go back to the way they once were. Only now Ichika actually had a sense of privacy in his dorm room. The staff saw it unreasonable to continue to allow Charlotte to be Ichika's roommate after she revealed her true identity. After all they moved Houki to allow the "only two" male students to stay in the same room. So until a more reasonable decision is to be made this is the compromise they decided on. He soon got used to staying in his dorm room alone most of the time. On occasion one of the girls would come by, Laura more frequently than the others and most of the time it was uninvited. She made a habit of sneaking her way into his room while he was out or on one occasion, while he was showering.

"It's finally over" Ichika relaxes and releases his grip from his Yukihira. Houki flies down to Ichika and lands by his side. "*gasp* I..Ichika what have you done!" Alarmed by Houki's response Ichika follows her horrified gaze back to the Silvario Gospel and is mortified by what he sees. The Yukihira still lying imbedded in its chest and blood coming out of the wound forming a puddle beneath the body. Ichika falls to his hands and knees gasping while in shock. Before he can get back on his feet several hands burst out from the puddle of blood and grip Ichika's body while tearing away at his armor ripping it from his body. "HOUKI", Ichika shouts to his friend, but to his dismay saw no one standing there. As he looks around several faceless figures begin encircling him all chanting the same thing. "Killer, murderer". The chants slowly begin getting louder. "Killer, murderer" the chanting has become to loud for Ichika to even hear his own thoughts. He tries to escape,but the hands continue to pull him down into the blood as is trying to drown him. As he sinks deeper and deeper he tries to lunge upward screaming.

"AAAHHHH" Ichika awakens from his dream panting in a heavy sweat. After a few moments he tries to calm himself by slowing his breathing and taking deeper breaths. He then thinks to himself. "That dream again huh." This is the third time Ichika has recalled that day in his sleep, every time he awoke screaming in terror. "Is something wrong?" A groggy yet comforting voice asks Ichika. "It's nothing I'm fi...eh" Ichika suddenly realizes that he's not the only one in his room and tries to identify the voice. Once his eyes adjust to the dark he identifies a large cat laying at the foot of his bed. The figure then begins to sit up and wipe at its eyes.

"L...Laura, what are you doing in my bed?" She responds in a drowsy voice while still wiping her eyes "I was sleeping until you woke me up." "That doesn't explain why you are in my bed." "You've been really tired during class the past week so I thought I could help you sleep." Ichika lets out a sigh as he explains to her. "I appreciate the thought, but I don't see how you can help me get any sleep." Laura begins to smile as she crawls towards Ichika. "W...what are you doing?" Ichika begins to get nervous as she crawls towards him. Laura attempts to hush Ichika as she wraps her arms around him and pulls his face towards hers. All Ichika can do is nervously stare back. Laura suddenly tightens her grip around his neck, by the time he realized she had him in a choke hold it was too late and he began to lose consciousness.

"hika!" "huh?" Ichika slowly awakens in a daze hearing knocking and a voice at his door. "Ichika, are you in there?" He recognizes the voice as Charlotte's. Before Ichika can get up he sees Laura walk over to answer his door already dressed in her school uniform. Charlotte begins to speak as the door opens. "Ichika have you seen Lau, LAURA?" Charlotte is surprised to see Laura answer Ichika's door for him. Already pushing her way in she confronts him on the situation "what's going on here Ichika?" Ichika tries to get the situation under control by explaining to her as he attempts to crawl out of his bed. "Hold on a moment Charl, let me... ah" , he suddenly falls out of his bed landing on top of her. "Ow, sorry about that Charl...eh." Suddenly aware of where both he and his hands are Ichika pushes himself off of Charlotte to lean back against his bed. Charlotte, who is still stunned from what she perceived as Ichika's attempt at making an advance on her is still lying on the floor stunned. "I'm sorry Cha..." Before Ichika was able to continue to apologize he was immediately interrupted by Laura. "IIICHIKAAAA!" She then performs a partial transformation covering her right arm with her IS suit and proceeds to throw a punch knocking him into the wall.

As Ichika recovers from his daze he catches the two girls leaving his room. Charlotte speaks in a spiteful tone without turning her head towards him. "Hurry up or you'll be late to class." Laura merely follows behind her and follows her statement with a prideful "hmph". Pulling himself back onto his feet Ichika tries to regain his thoughts. "I suppose I should get ready for class." Ichika proceeds to dress himself after going through his morning routine and suddenly recalls his dream once more. Every time he recalls that day his breaths become faster and shallower, his mind becomes foggy and he begins to sweat. He then attempts to shake the thought from his head as he gets his shoes on and heads towards the door. As he opens his door he realizes that someone else is standing on the other side.

With the door now open Ichika finds himself standing in front of an unfamiliar face. A female student who looks not much older than him with shoulder length blue hair and who's eyes carried a crimson shade of red. "Yo", she spoke to him in a rather casual tone of voice as if she's known him for a while. "Hey Ichika I..." "sorry, but I'm already late". Ichika cut her off, pushed passed her and began to run down the hall towards his classroom not paying her much mind.

After a well paced run, Ichika reaches his classroom and stops outside to catch his breath before entering. "*pant pant* I made it." He brushes himself off and checks his uniform for any obvious corrections he should make before he decides to go into the class room. At last he takes a deep breath and opens the door and proceeds to step in. "Sorry I'm late I..." *thwack*. Ichika is hit over the head by a thick text book. "Don't walk in late and interrupt the lesson." Ichika turns around to see his older sister Chifuyu Orimura standing over him while looking at him with a stern expression. "Hurry up and go take your seat." "Yes ma'am." Ichika turns back and quietly heads towards his desk and sits down as his sister continues with her lesson.

Not paying much attention to the actual lesson, Ichika turns his attention towards Houki. She sat just to his left and was attentively listening to the lecture and would occasionally shift her focus to her notes as she jotted them down. He then shifts his gaze back towards the board at the front of the class, however he doesn't concentrate on the lesson and begins to drift off into his own thoughts. He remembers the girl he ran into outside of his room. He got the feeling that he had seen her somewhere before, but he couldn't place his finger on where and who she was. "Orimura-kun...Orimura-kun, Orimura-kun!" *wham*. A book suddenly flies through the air and hits Ichika in the head. "Ow" Ichika is suddenly knocked from his train of though and now looks towards the front of the room lost and rubbing his head. "Please explain the correspondence between the shield capacity and short distance thrusters of the base design that was incorporated into the 3rd generation models. "Eh?...uh." Baffled by the sudden question his eyes suddenly search the room. Houki continues to immerse herself in her notes, almost as if trying not to make eye contact with him. Laura and Charlotte pay him no mind and look away. A few of the other girls in the class quietly giggled at his dumbfounded expression. "Alcott-san, please assist him". Cecilia quickly followed with a prompt answer. "Yes ma'am, most of the mass produced third generation IS model were divided between short to mid-range combat. The close combat models featured a higher concentrated shield in the rear with the thrusters designed for a quicker forward propulsion. While the mid-range models were more focused on maintaining their distance form their target as apposed to the close range models." "Thank you, you may be seated." Ichika continued to struggle with maintaining his attention on the lesson throughout the rest of class. Just before class ended Orimura-sensei made an announcement to the class. "All class representatives need to go to room 3-B after school for a meeting with the student council president.

Once class was dismissed Ichika began to gather his things when Houki approached his desk. "Ichika, if you have the time; I'd like to talk to you about something later." Ichika was caught off guard by Houki's sudden approach. Lately he had been getting the idea that she wanted nothing to do with him. "Sure, let's talk after the class representative meeting." "Okay", Houki didn't seem too thrilled judging by the tone of her response, but it still seemed as if she managed to get something off her chest. "Right, I'll be seeing you then." Ichika stands up and begins to walk towards the doorway to his classroom, but before he manages to walk out Rin suddenly jumped into the doorway cutting him off. "Yo Ichika, you were told about the meeting right; let's walk together." "Sure, I don't mind." He responded without giving it much thought. He figured if he was able to continue talking to someone it would help keep his mind in a better state. As he walked out of the classroom with Rin, he failed to notice the envious glares of the girls behind him.

The two of them continued down the hall talking. Most of it was Rin going on about the past few days of class as well as her boasting over her "superior" combat abilities. Soon the two of them reached class 3-B and entered to find the other class representatives already seated and discussing various matters amongst themselves. Eventually everyone was seated and merely awaited the arrival of the student council president. Suddenly everyone's attention was fixated on the door to the classroom that had just opened. "Sorry I'm late everyone." A spunky, yet somewhat formal voice accompanied by a female student with blue hair and red eyes enters the room. Ichika is surprised to recognize the speaker as the girl he encountered outside his room earlier this morning. "It's a pleasure to meet you all, I'm Tatanashi Sarashiki."


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

"Nice to meet you all, I'm Sarashiki Tatanashi" Everyone in the room now stares questionably at the girl who was just walked into the room. Ichika continues to stare at the mysterious girl attempting to determine any previous affiliation he may have had with her. She is aware of his gaze and returns a smile and wink at him, which catches him off guard. At the same time Rin notices the gesture and begins to frown towards the girl who just entered the room. Paying no mind to Rin's frown, Tatanashi walks towards the teachers desk at the front of the room taking her seat there and begins to address everyone else in the room. "Now that everyone is here we can get this meeting started." As soon as she finishes her first sentence she is interrupted by another student. "Excuse me, but we're still waiting on the student council president." The blue haired girl then confidently responds, "yes that's me." A few mummers and whispers are passed through the room, but it quickly quiets down and the student council president continues to address the representatives. "To start we have some basic matters to discuss about upcoming events; such as student physicals, tournaments and even a school play. The teachers have also asked that we review some of the school policies." She went into more specific details over the stated topics. The school has agreed to allow a student to assist in taking records for the upcoming physical. The upcoming tournament was to be a doubles competition. A play is being planned in the future, however the story and casting has yet to be decided on. During that conversation one of the girls suggested that the play be based on a harem story in which several girls competed for the hero's affection only for him to be infinitely oblivious to their attempts. The class representatives take down notes and throw out their own suggestions and concerns over the other various matters.

Towards the end of the meeting Tatanashi addresses one final topic. "By now I'm sure several of you have heard rumors of our school's involvement in an international incident with the United States." The room suddenly becomes very quiet and everyone's attention becomes fixated on the student council president. This statement especially catches Ichika's attention and he and Rin exchange quick glances before returning their gaze to the front of the room. "Information about this past incident has been publicized on the internet, however no names are officially mentioned. Our school has not publicly responded to any accusations. This has led to several students being targeted by the media." Hearing this statement a sense of nervousness spreads throughout the room among the other students. Tatanashi immediately regains everyone's attention. "However, an article within the school rules states that "students within the academy, while enrolled do not belong to any country, organization or group." This means that while you remain a student at IS Academy you are not obligated to answer any questions due to affiliation with a group outside the school, to include political connections to your country of origin, corporations, any past military units, religious factions or even family." Once she covered the final topic, Tatanashi released the class representatives and everyone began to leave the room. Ichika and Rin soon went their separate ways after the meeting.

On his way back to his room Ichika once again finds himself lost in his thoughts. He keeps finding himself back on the topic of the Silvario Gospel incident and the more he remembers, the more his conscious rips at him with guilt. "The world now knows about what happened. What if they find out I was the one who killed the pilot... what if I'm charged with murder? Will I be taken away from the academy?" The thought of being separated from his sister, his only family as well as his friends fills him with fear and sorrow. "Is something the matter?" Ichika is suddenly confronted once again by Tatanashi. Not really feeling up to a conversation at this point, Ichika simply makes up an excuse. "It's nothing, I was just kinda bummed out from class earlier today." In truth, Ichika wanted to talk to someone; he desperately wanted to have someone comfort him on his fears. However, his fear of what the consequences of anyone knowing what he's done weighed him with too much fear to open up to anyone about it. He was afraid of what everyone would think of him, he didn't want to be called a murder. He waved goodbye to Tatanashi and continued to walk towards his room, as he walked back he passed by a couple of girls in the hallway and over heard part of their conversation. "It looks like it's gonna be a cloudy night." The other girl responds in a disappointed tone, "oh and I wanted to see the full moon tonight." Hearing their conversation put's his mind on a different topic. As he pictures the moon it makes him recall the old myth of a rabbit being on the moon. This makes him recall Tabane Shininono, the genius who created the Infinite Stratos units. She's been the focus of various nations ever since. She was also Houki's older sister. "Houki...Houki?" Upon recalling her name Ichika suddenly feels as though he's forgotten something. "HOUKI!" He suddenly recalls his earlier conversation remembering he was to have a talk with her. He immediately hurries off to go find her.

Running throughout the halls, all Ichika can find himself thinking about is why Houki wanted to talk to him. He quickly rounds corners without much thought, or without a destination even in mind. "Ugh, she's gonna kill me for forgetting about our promise. I just hope apologi..." *wham*. Ichika suddenly finds himself lying on his back with something on top of him. In an attempt to identify what's holding him down, Ichika squeezes his hand. "KYAA!" He suddenly hears a loud shriek and regrettably recognizes the voice. Yamada-sensei quickly pushed herself off Ichika and sat back hiding the lower half of her face behind a clip board. "Ichika-kun, what are you doing running through the hallways like that?" "Sorry Yamada-sensei, I was looking for Houki." Hearing this, Yamada-sensei moves her clip board down and responds back. "I believe I saw Shininono-san by the fountain off in the courtyard." She points him in the right direction as she finishes explaining. Ichika quickly gets up and hurries off, once she sees him round the next corner she stands up and gathers the documents that fell off the clipboard when the two of them collided. "Thank goodness, it seems he didn't notice." As she neatly sifts the documents back together she looks back over them. One of them has her attention more so than the other. A document resembling a personnel profile, the name at the top reads Natasha Fairs.

Soon after his encounter with Yamada-sensei, Ichika finally makes it outside to the courtyard. As he tries to catch his breath, he begins to look around searching for Houki. He manages to spot the upper half of a silhouette sitting on the other side of the fountain halfway across the courtyard. He begins to make his way towards the figure and as he gets closer he recognizes the figure and calls out to her. "Sorry Houki, I got caught up with the meeting and lost track of time!" Houki suddenly turns around, but to Ichika's surprise she wasn't mad; it looked more like she had been crying until very recently. Caught off guard by his friend's face Ichika becomes nervous with the situation. "Is everything all right?" Without saying anything Houki begins to run towards Ichika. He takes a step back by reflex, but his train of thought his broken by the sound of thunder and he glances up to meet the feeling of rain dropping from the cloudy sky. Before he can glance back down he feels the warmth of another person pressing into his body. He glances down to see her burying her face into his shoulder and now that it's raining he can't even tell if she's crying anymore. After a few moments Ichika finally realizes what happening and decides to break the silence. "We should get out of the rain." She doesn't speak, but he can feel her acknowledge with a nod.

They later find themselves back in Ichika's room. Ichika is sitting on his bed, while Houki is in the shower. "Heh." Ichika chuckles to himself over the nostalgic feeling. It kind of reminded him of back when he first arrived at the academy. He then takes a moment to recall everything that just happened. It was right after it started raining that the two of them were walking through the halls. Houki was remaining silent as she walked by Ichika. The two of them were both soaked from the sudden downpour not to mention cold. Ichika was plagued with concern for what had gotten Houki so upset that she still hadn't spoken to him. For once he found himself wanting her to yell at him, he felt as though her usual aggressive manner would put him at ease. However, she continues to silently look down as she walks by him and without saying anything she suddenly reaches and grabs hold of his sleeve. "Eh?" He suddenly notices her first attempt at reaching out to him since she entered her silent state and stops in the hallway. He looks over towards her and finds himself now meeting her gaze. The two of them locked into each others' eyes. To Ichika it suddenly felt as though time had slowed down and he lost awareness of his surroundings. "Eh, Orimu?" The silence is suddenly broken by one of Ichika and Houki's classmates. The two of them suddenly break eye contact looking at their surroundings to realize they have become the center of attention for everyone in the dormitory hallway. Everyone is now whispering and murmuring amongst each other. Though there were too many voices speaking at once to make out any clear conversations the two of them could pick out key words such as "dating and couple." Houki suddenly turns red with embarrassment and releases Ichika's sleeve, however she still said nothing. The two of them pushed their way past the crowd and continued towards Ichika's room.

Ichika suddenly snaps out of his recollection to notice the shower has stopped. He hears the bathroom door open and sees Houki step out in a change of gym clothes he had provided her with while she continues to dry her hair with a towel. Ichika had already dried himself off and changed while Houki was in the shower. The two of them now sat across from each other on the two beds and once more the room became silent.

Ichika figured he should break the silence and tried to repeat his apology from earlier. "Sorry abou..." He was cut off by Houki who finally began to speak. "I apologize for my behavior up till now." "Eh?" Ichika is caught off guard by Houki's statement. However this suddenly brings him to the question he's been wanting to ask her all this time. "Was it about what you wanted to discuss earlier today? Did something happen?" Houki goes quiet and looks down as she thinks of how to explain what happened earlier. "A few days ago I received a message from my sister saying that she wanted to have a talk with me. I asked why she couldn't simply call and all she told me was she didn't want to be traced" As Houki continues to explain a worried expression begins to appear. "Before class this morning I received another message from her saying we couldn't meet like she wanted to, that it was because she didn't want us to get involved." Suddenly Houki's expression drops and her voice begins to tremble as she continues to explain. "After class was dismissed today I checked my phone and found a voice mail from my parents telling me that government officials came by to tell them that they had to leave. Apparently a call was intercepted planning to perform a kidnapping attempt. It seems that certain groups have been targeting my family in attempts to locate my sister. However, they reassured me that I would be safe at the academy." Houki looked as though she was now about to cry. "My family has had to disappear without a goodbye and I'm not sure when I'll be able to see them again."

Ichika sat speechless across from her. He wanted to comfort her, but he just didn't know what to say. Houki buries her face into her hands doing all she can to hold back any tears, when she suddenly feels a wave of comfort envelope her. Ichika now sat beside Houki embracing her. "As long as we're at IS Academy we're safe. You still have Charlotte, Laura, Cecilia and Rin. We're all here with you." Hearing what Ichika just said, Houki felt as though a massive burden had been lifted from her. She then leans into Ichika and relaxes.

Though Ichika intentions were to comfort his friend, a grave though suddenly went through his mind. "What happens when we all graduate from the academy?"


End file.
